Although I often eat out, my preference is actually homecooked meals. Unfortunately, I am so busy these days, that cooking at home has been a luxury, too, until I discovered MamaBz, the multi-purpose cooking paste.

1. three of the four available flavours from MamaBz

Cooking with ready-to-cook paste is nothing new, obviously, but MamaBz is quite an ingenious product in the sense that it is multi-purpose, like I mentioned.

2. MamaBz owner, Fariz, adds coconut milk to his redang daging

Prepare the ingredients, put everything into the wok including a packet of MamaBz paste, then serve when cooked. Voilà, in just three easy steps, anyone can be a home chef – men, women who never needed to hold the spatula previously and even children (under supervision).

3. daging dengan perencah masak hitam serbaguna

You probably haven’t heard of MamaBz before because it is a fairly new brand. I had the opportunity to visit its factory the other day at Klebang.

The boss of MamaBz, Fariz, is indeed someone who enjoys cooking so much that he gave up an engineering career to venture into MamaBz business. That alone indicates his passion for cooking, and as we all know, food with passion as one of its features tastes so much better.

4. daging dengan perencah asam pedas serbaguna

During the visit, I was able to chat with Fariz and also see how things are done. I am someone who is curious about the procedure of how something is made or produced, but don’t like to do it myself. Haha!

Preparing the paste is a lot of hard work. First, it’s the chopping, cutting and blending of basic ingredients, such as chilli, onions, salt, sugar, pan-toasted fresh coconut (kerisik), thick as well as sweet soy sauce.

5. ikan pari asam pedas dengan MamaBz asam pedas serbaguna

Once all the basics are ready, the large wok is fired up. First into the wok is the chilli. I was taken aback when told that the chilli needed to be cooked for one full hour before the remaining ingredients are added in one by one. Cooking the chilli is an art by itself as it is the foundation of the paste. All in all, the paste takes at least 2 hours to cook.

The maximum capacity of the wok is 60kg, to produce 700 packets of paste, at 75g per pack. Monthly production is at least 3,000 packets.

Those who are passionate about Malay cuisine are no stranger to these flavours. However, it is not so easy to pinpoint their origins. As you know, every Malaysian state has its own distinctive taste, but for MamaBz, after receiving feedback from family and friends, Fariz has fine tuned the recipes handed over by his mother, so they are not specifically from Perak, Kedah, Melaka or Johor, inevitably comprising the best of everything.

7. udang dengan perencah rendang

The most popular paste is Asam Pedas. It goes well with all species of fish, especially cencaru sumbat (stuffed mackerel) and ikan bakar (Portuguese grill).

8. ketupat palas – best eaten with rendang

9. yours truly about to savour ketupat palas

During Hari Raya, of course, the top seller is Rendang paste. To be eaten as it is with ketupat, lemang, pulut kuning, or even nasi putih (plain white rice), it can also be cooked with prawns, beef, lamb, chicken or cockles. Basically, as a multi-purpose paste, it is suitable for all meat. To cook with meat, just add hot water. To make it more flavourful, add freshly squeezed coconut milk (santan). The amount to be added is according to taste.

10. let’s cook this

As for sambal paste, this is also another all-time favourite. Ready to eat, just add a small volume of hot water. For cooking, it is usually used in sambal tumis, ikan 3 rasa or as sauce for noodles. Most recently, I used it to cook petai (bitter beans), adding onions to my dish for more flavour and colour.

MamaBz range of paste is tasty, ready to eat, easy to cook and yet zero preservatives with two years shelf life, by strictly following food technology SOP. What more do we want? In fact, the inspiration behind MamaBz is Fariz’ busy wife. As a career woman, who also has to take care of the household, she had to buy packed food from roadside warungs.

With the desire to help out other households in the same situation, Fariz figured that MamaBz could turn kitchen noobs into professional chefs in a jiffy. With four flavours, they can prepare different dishes the whole week through. Best of all, these tastes are not something that can be acquired from tapau (packed) food, even if hawkers used MamaBz, too. LOL

13. udang dengan perencah sambal serbaguna

Too busy to cook even with MamaBz? Fariz is available for catering (open house, Hari Raya, wedding, etc), whether it is Rendang Daging, Daging Masak Hitam, or other items. Just place the order, pay up and the delicious food will be delivered to your doorstep.

14. special wedding door gift packages

To complement their food business, also available are special wedding door gift packages.